Smudge
by AlternativeRocker
Summary: Stuart makes connections with wine glasses which leads to Robbie having to face up to how he feels about Jackie. R/J fluff for the lipstick prompt challenge.


**Authors Note: **Did you think I wasn't going to manage to wirte a fic for the 'lipstick' prompt? Really? No, I didn't think so. Here you go then, take the 2,000 word fluff!

**Disclaimer: **Do you think I would allow the show to end if I owned it? Especially without any proper confirmation Robbie and Jackie have been doing it for years.

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><p>"Robbie, is this one of your stupid ploys to force me into asking who you hooked up with last night?" Stuart called through from the kitchen to his friends, wondering if Robbie had always been this brazen over his conquests or if it had only manifested itself since he had moved to Glasgow.<p>

"What are you talking about?"

"One of several unwashed glasses here has a dark red lipstick smudge on it. I thought you were going to hire a cleaner by the way."

"As if I have the money for that! She's pretty amazing - last night's date but we didn't go the whole way. I don't think we will any time soon either."

Stuart took their refilled glasses back through to the living room and looked at his host with a suspicious glint in his eyes. "You haven't closed the deal yet? Who is this woman that has you all tied up?"

"Just..." he trailed off and breathed a sigh of relief as the doorbell rang and he let Jackie in with a smile being used as a greeting instead of words.

When the three friends were sat down - Robbie and Jackie next to each other on the sofa and Stuart on the opposite side of the table kneeling on the floor - the various pizza boxes were opened and the conversation began to flow asnaturally as it always had. The talk quickly moved to Stuart's issue with Robbie,

"Jackie, since I haven't been kept as up to date as you promised I would be, you can explain when he got hit by lightning and changed into a different person. Who is this mystery woman he has fallen for that hasn't done done the dirty deed with him?"

Her eyes widened in surprise, "Ooo, now I'm intrigued. I have no idea about whatis going on with our darling Robbie." They both looked at th eolder man like little children in a candy shop.

"She's nobody. We had a drink and she went home. It's nothing!"

Jackie smirked at him, "Not when you are involved in a relationship like this. I honestly thouhgt I was the only woman you only had drinks with!" There was somehting wrong with the return smile and eye roll she received but she shrugged it off in favour of quizzing him more about _her_.

"How long have you known her? Do we know her?"

All the questions came in super-speed and Robbie answered as many as he could, "A while and you have heard of her."

Stuart shook his head violently, "Oh come on Robbie. Give us something! Those answers are the vaguest I've ever heard and that's including Jackie's ones about her ideal shag if she could pick anyone in the world."

"That's cause we all know the answer to the question is me." Stuart busrt into a fit of laughter whereas the other two were slightly more hesitant before giggling softly, avoiding the others' eyes at all costs. They knew the subject had to be changed so she was the person to turn to Stuart and start asking about his new life,

"How's the house doing? And are there any fit guys for either of us up there?"

Stuart realised his friends were even more awkward around each other when the idea of their feeling were approached and adored the cute shyness they were currently experiencing with the person whom they were accidentally brushing shoulders with. He knew how deeply they cared for their colleague and desperately wanted to know who Robbie had found to settle for second best with.

All three had prearranged that as Staurt was only here for the one night they would have some talking then spend the other few hours getting completely drunk since they needed just a chance to escape from how they felt right now.

When Stuart went to get the stornger alcohol he took through their empty wine glasses. While going to put Jackie's in the sink he giggled at the fact her lipstick had transferred to the transparent material until he took a second look at the colour, his mind trying to place where he had seen it before. He grabbed at the glass he had found earlier and he was right: both lipstick smudges were the exact same colour. He didn't believe in coincidences when the situation involved Robbie and Jackie, he quickly thought through what Robbie had said tonight about the mysterious date from the previous night and let his inner romantic show as he imagined what could happen next to get Jackie to acknowledge how she felt and then they would be the happy couple Stuart had always wanted them to be.

In light of how they were still acting around each other - the same way they had been for over a decade - he surmised that it had only been them in his flat having a drink last night and Jackie had no idea she was the woman that meant so much to Robbie and that she was the one they had spent so many years hoping that Robbie would find. Meanwhile in the living room neither had realised the amount they had drank in the past two nights already was about treble their monthly guidelines so were hardly treading carefully with their words any more,

"You know Jackie, I think you should just have some hot sex with any guy you see. Both parties involved would have the greatest time and you could stop boring me senseless with your complaints about only ever having nights out with me."

"Didn't we have this conversation last night?"

"Probably. Maybe you should take it as an offer one of these evenings." She raised an eyebrow while laughing and shaking her head, trying her hardest not to kiss him right there and then. Every part of her body was electric when their dark eyes trapped the others'. All they cared about was the person in front of the and they knew they would have ended up going further than ever before if Stuart hadn't chose that moment to walk in and break the moment's intensity.

"I thought we should start on the tequila early. Not that you two actually need any of this stuff."

When they finally got to sleep hours later all three were lying around the front room under various blankets that they had stumbled across when preparing for the sleepover that they had conjured up out of the blue when Jackie refused to call a taxi.

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><p>Robbie woke to the sound of his bathroom door being slammed shut. Looking around he saw Stuart stirring and knew instantly that Jackie must currently be throwing up the entire contents of her digestive systen into his toilet.<p>

"Morning Robbie, I suppose that's the start of us being blamed for ruining her week?"

"Obviously. It wouldn't be an overnight stay at mine if we weren't screamed at by our darling."

The two men sat up, attempting to rapidly shake off the hangovers that were becoming apparent.

"I knopw who your no-contact lover is by the way."

"Stuart, I don't have a girlfriend now or that night when she smudged her dark red lipstick over my utensils."Stuart grinned at the fact Robbie knew what coulour it had been and had no doubt in his mind he was correct in his assumption.

"I know the technicalities but you've loved each other for a decade."

Robbie knew there was no point denying it since the younger male knew more about his friends than they did, "She doesn't feel that strongly mate. Even if she did can you imagine us as a proper couple, there are no words to describe how bad those arguments would be!"

"Think about the make-up sex though. She loves you, you make her happier than anyone else."

Robbie smirked, "The bedroom activities would be hot, I have to admit- Woah, what the hell am I saying? There is no chance of this happening!"

"Oh come on, okease Robbie, just give it a go. She wouldn't refuse."

Robbie's only response to this was to throw a book that had been lying next to him at the lump he could make out on the couch. They waited in silence for another few minutes until Jackie rejoined them. She sat down and brought her knees up to her chest, allowing her forehead to rest on them and wondering if she had developed a lower tolerance to alcohol or they had just drank a lot more than she remembered.

Her dreams last night had been unsurprising to her but probably would have scarred anyone with telepathic powers. The only thing she hadn't ben expecting was that even with so much booze inside her blood it had been nowhere near as smutty as previous dreams that involved herself and a certain male colleague who she was still trying her hardest to ignore for all intensive purpose.

She got lost in her thoughts before being interrupted by Robbie and Stuart resuming their game of 'throw the large book at each other without seriously injuring them'. The noise of their laughter and ocassional cries of pain got progressively louder and she had to try to make them understand how much her head was pounding.

"Don't mind me. I'm just going to die over here in the corner."

Robbie replied first to her, "No you aren't, you are going to come over to this duvet and get comforted and teased by the people who love you unashamedly, but in different ways/"

Stuart butted in at this point, "No kidding, friendship and love-struck teenages are two utterly separate things!"

Jackie started to splutter as she was about to take a drink of water from a glass she had brought downstairs with her, They both glared at Stuart yet realised how true what he saying was and how they hated him for saying it in front of the other person. Now that it had been said however, she knew there may be a slim chance of tehre being mutual feelings from Robbie since she knew Stuart's claims would not be unfounded so she looked over shyly at Robbie and smiled.

He could see instantly his feelings were reciprocated and marvelled at the fact she had been hiding them for just as long as he had more than likely.

Stuart had missed this exchange of expression because he was too busy hunting for all his belongings since his train back up North was due in an hour and it would take at least half of that to get to the station.

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><p>An hour later, Stuart had left them with large goodbyes and the couple were now snuggled together on his floor. They hadn't yet verbalised their feelings but were content enough with what they were currently like.<p>

Jackie spoke as she looked into his bright grin, etching as much to her memory as was possible in such a short amount of time, "When did we become such lightweights?"

"In terms of drinking or love?"

"Both I suppose, if that's how you feel about me too."

"Of course it is. It was your lipstick Stuart found on the glass from a couple of nights ago when we sat up until two o'clock talking nonsense as usual. It was you that you were both quizzing me about yesterday."

He gently pressed his lips against her jaw and trailed them down her neck and shoulder. Her eyes fluttered closed which was a mistake since the next time Robbie looked at her face and began to talk he realised she was fast asleep. He rolled his eyes before kissing her forehead and whispered for sweet dreams before dozing off himself, both of them experiencing the kind of dream about their partner that now wasn't quite so forbidden.

**The End.**


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